1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:14,000 You can roughly locate any community in the world somewhere along a scale running all the way from democracy to despotism. 2 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:20,000 One at a democracy end, another somewhere in the middle, and a third... 3 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:28,000 Let's find out about despotism. This man makes it his job to study these things. 4 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:39,000 Well, for one thing, avoid the comfortable idea that the mere form of government can of itself safeguard a nation against despotism. 5 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:53,000 Germany under President Hindenburg was a republic, and yet in this republic an aggressive despotism took root and flourished under Adolf Hitler. 6 00:00:53,000 --> 00:01:01,000 When a competent observer looks for signs of despotism in a community, he looks beyond fine words and noble phrases. 7 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:11,000 For which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 8 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:20,000 Many observers have found that two workable yardsticks help in discovering how near a community is to despotism. 9 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:26,000 The respect scale and the power scale. 10 00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:33,000 A careful observer can use a respect scale to find how many citizens get an even break. 11 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:42,000 As a community moves towards despotism, respect is restricted to fewer people. 12 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:54,000 A community is low on a respect scale if common courtesy is withheld from large groups of people on account of their political attitudes. 13 00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:10,000 If people are rude to others because they think their wealth and position gives them that right, or because they don't like a man's race or his religion. 14 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:19,000 Equal opportunity for all citizens to develop useful skills is one basis for rating a community on a respect scale. 15 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:25,000 The opportunity to develop useful skills is important, but not enough. 16 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:37,000 The equally important opportunity to put skills to use is a further test on a respect scale. 17 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:42,000 A power scale is another important yardstick of despotism. 18 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:47,000 It gauges the citizens' share in making the community's decisions. 19 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:55,000 Communities which concentrate decision making in a few hands rate low on a power scale and are moving towards despotism. 20 00:02:55,000 --> 00:03:03,000 Like France under the Bourbon kings, one of whom said, the state, I am the state. 21 00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:13,000 Today, democracy can ebb away in communities whose citizens allow power to become concentrated in the hands of bosses. 22 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:22,000 What I say goes, see, I'm the law around here. 23 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:28,000 The test of despotic power is that it can disregard the will of the people. 24 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:35,000 It rules without the consent of the governed. 25 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:48,000 Look beyond the legal formalities of an election in measuring a community on the power scale to see if the ballot is really free. 26 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:57,000 If the citizens can vote only the way they're told, a community approaches despotism. 27 00:03:57,000 --> 00:04:08,000 When legislatures become ceremonial assemblies only and have no real control over lawmaking, their community rates low on a power scale. 28 00:04:08,000 --> 00:04:12,000 T.I.A.! T.I.A.! 29 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:26,000 In a downright despotism, opposition is dangerous whether the despotism is official or whether it is unofficial. 30 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:40,000 The spread of respect and power in a community is influenced by certain conditions, which many observers measure by means of the economic distribution and information scales. 31 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:54,000 If a community's economic distribution becomes slanted, its middle income groups grow smaller and despotism stands a better chance to gain a foothold. 32 00:04:54,000 --> 00:05:07,000 Where land is privately owned, one sign of a poorly balanced economy is the concentration of land ownership in the hands of a very small number of people. 33 00:05:07,000 --> 00:05:12,000 When farmers lose their farms, they lose their independence. 34 00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:18,000 This one can stay on, but not as his own boss anymore. 35 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:26,000 To the extent that this condition exists throughout a nation, the likelihood of despotism is increased. 36 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:41,000 In communities which depend almost entirely on a single industry, such as a factory or mine, maintaining economic balance is a challenging problem. 37 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:57,000 If this condition exists over the nation as a whole, so that the control of jobs and business opportunities is in a few hands, despotism stands a good chance. 38 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:06,000 Another sign of a poorly balanced economy is a taxation system that presses heaviest on those least able to pay. 39 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:11,000 A larger part of a small income is spent on necessities such as food. 40 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:19,000 Sales taxes on such necessities hit the small income harder. 41 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:32,000 In the days of the salt tax, feudal despotisms were partly sustained by this and other effects. 42 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:47,000 A community rates low on an information scale when the press, radio, and other channels of communication are controlled by only a few people, and when citizens have to accept what they're told. 43 00:06:47,000 --> 00:06:54,000 In communities of this kind, despotism stands a good chance. 44 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:59,000 See how a community trains its teachers. 45 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:06,000 Bear this in mind. Young people cannot be trusted to form their own opinions. 46 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:15,000 This business about open-mindedness is nonsense. It's a waste of time trying to teach students to think for themselves. 47 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:20,000 It's our job to tell them. 48 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:26,000 And when teachers put such training into practice, despotism stands a good chance. 49 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:35,000 These children are being taught to accept uncritically whatever they're told. Questions are not encouraged. 50 00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:40,000 How can you ask such a question? Have you got a textbook? 51 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:41,000 Yes, ma'am. 52 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:45,000 Does it say here that our law courts are always just? 53 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:46,000 Yes, ma'am. 54 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:51,000 Then how dare you question the fact. Sit down. 55 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:54,000 And so we aren't surprised when... 56 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:59,000 But it must be true. I saw it in this book right here. 57 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:11,000 And if books and newspapers and the radio are efficiently controlled, the people will read and accept exactly what the few in control want them to. 58 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:15,000 Government censorship is one form of control. 59 00:08:15,000 --> 00:08:21,000 A newspaper which breaks a government censorship rule can be suspended. 60 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:31,000 It is also possible for newspapers and other forms of communication to be controlled by private interests. 61 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:35,000 I thought I told you to kill that story. It'll cost us a lot of advertising. 62 00:08:35,000 --> 00:08:37,000 If that story goes out, I quit. 63 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:42,000 All right. 64 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:45,000 What sort of community do you live in? 65 00:08:45,000 --> 00:08:56,000 Where would you place it on a democracy despotism scale? To find out, you can rate it on a respect scale and a power scale. 66 00:08:56,000 --> 00:09:07,000 And to find out what way it is likely to go in the future, you can rate it on economic distribution and information scales. 67 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:18,000 The lower your community rates on economic distribution and information scales, the lower it is likely to rate on respect and power scales. 68 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:28,000 And thus, to approach despotism. 69 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:33,000 What happens in a single community is the problem of its own citizens. 70 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:37,000 But it is also the problem of us all. 71 00:09:37,000 --> 00:10:06,000 Because as communities go, so goes the nation.